CAT fight

[Greenie9657]

Hi

Ive decided to wire up my home network with CAT6 cabling for future proofing the house but now my problem is im struggling to find somewhere i can get it in reels of less than 305 meters. I was hoping to get about 100M of CAT6 cable but i cant find it anywhere. Does anyone have a good website or shop i could check out? i tried my local screw fix this afternoon and also satcure on the web but all i can find is the massive 305M reel.
Im also trying to find a black wall faceplate as apposed to the normal white ones that seem to be in every shop. Any info would be great. Ive found some cable on ebay but how do i know what is good quality cable and what is a cheap copy?

Thanks

 

[Sam Gangee]

SatCure offers cut lengths.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page21.htm?#catcut

And black RJ45 wall plate inserts..
304275 (---) TR96RB CAT5E RJ45 Ethernet black £1.99
http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page15b.htm

 

[ChrisFrost]

Decent CAT cable is all copper. There's a lot of cheap Chinese knock-off copy stuff around which is copper coated aluminium. That's inferior grade. The problem is that a lot of Ebay sellers either don't know, or don't care, or just plain lie in the descriptions. SatCure is a reputable source. Whatever you buy, strip off the outer jacket and sleeve, then scrape the surface of the wire with a knife. It should be copper underneath, not bright silver aluminium.

 

[Sureitsoff?]

buy a full reel of 305m as you will be surprised how quickly you use it up when you start wiring up the house ( I have gone through 2 x 305m already and still havent finished) I know full boxes aren't cheap but they work out cheaper than cut lengths.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305m-Cat6...uting_NetworkingCables_RL&hash=item53f7a35a6d

 

[Greenie9657]

Thats great fellas. thanks for all your replies. Ive now finish bedroom 1 so i think ill go and buy 305 solid for the rest of the house as im running 2 cat6 plates in each room. Ive also sorted the wall plates i went for modular from screw fix and they look the business. Whats the difference between cat5e wire and cat 6? to me it just looks like copper conductor how can it make anything faster? (im just looking for info now as i like to know how things work)

thanks again

 

[Sam Gangee]

CAT 6 can transmit data more quickly because of its different construction. http://www.google.com/search?q=difference+between+cat5+cat6

I would add that CAT6 cable will rarely show any benefits. Consider whether you are running a gigabit data system in a business environment or simply want to pipe signals around your home.

In most cases it would be like fitting VR rated tyres to an ordinary saloon car. No discernible improvement in performance but a big chunk out of your bank balance.

 

[Monkeh]

Cat5e is certainly adequate for the foreseeable future for ethernet usage. Cat6 has advantages when used for other signals (HDMI extension and so forth), but for gigabit ethernet it doesn't really matter in domestic installs. Many of the benefits of Cat6 require very careful installation and termination practices which you may not achieve on a DIY install anyway.

If you spend half the difference on making PVC conduit drops, you can easily add to or replace the wiring in the future with minimal disruption.